3-071-933 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Trenches at Kostiuchnówka, May 26, 1916. From the autumn of 1915, the Polish Legions fought in Volhynia, on the section of the front located in the Kovel area. After the front stabilized in November, the legionary units occupied a section in the area of Wolczeck on the Styr River. Part of the formation was directed to quarters in the nearby rear, some remained in the line and here they settled for the autumn and winter months and began to prepare for spring fighting. After building dugouts, the soldiers began digging and strengthening trenches and run-through ditches, erecting redoubts and bolts, hindering the enemy's actions when he had already broken into the trenches. In the early spring of 1916, there was a change in the personnel of the front line, and the soldiers who were resting in the rear continued their work. The positions near Kostiuchnówka - dugouts and trenches - were prepared by soldiers of the II Brigade, who were changed in the spring by legionnaires from the 1st Brigade. They found excellently built and well-equipped dugouts and deep and solidly reinforced trenches. Gottlieb presented a view of the trenches near Kostiuchnówka at the end of May 1916, a few weeks before the bloody battle that took place on July 4-6 and claimed hundreds of victims among the soldiers of the Polish Legions.